Cognitive behavioral therapy is known as one of techniques for alleviating stress or mental fatigue and improving mental disorders such as depression. Cognitive behavioral therapy is defined as “a kind of mental therapy (psychological therapy) which works on cognition to make people feel better” (see, for example, NPD 1). This cognitive behavioral therapy is an approach that does not rely on physical or chemical means but improves symptoms through enlightenment and dialogs mainly based on languages.
In Britain, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence provides a guidance for computer-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy, entitled “Computerised cognitive behaviour therapy for depression and anxiety”, http://publications.nice.org.uk/computerised-cognitive-behaviour-therapy-for-depression-and-anxiety-ta97/guidance, in which its effects are also described.
Beating the Blues (http://www.beatingtheblues.co.uk/) in Britain provides on-line cognitive behavioral therapy actually using computers, and its effects is also described in the guideline above.
On the other hand, in Japan, for example, the SRQ-D check sheet developed by Toho University is utilized in local governments and hospitals as an easy screening for mild depression, which only requires users to answer a simple questionnaire (see, for example, PTD 2). This is to easily diagnose suspicion of depression by allowing users to select an answer from four choices “No”, “Sometimes”, “Often”, and “Always” for 18 questions including, for example, Q1: Do you feel sluggish and get easily tired? and Q2: Are you nervous about noise?
As described above, it is known that an easy diagnosis is made through a simple linguistic questionnaire, and symptoms are alleviated through online dialogs using computers.
In this regard, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-108674 (PTD 1) discloses a system for conducting counseling using a personal computer. Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2013-109656 (PTD 2) discloses an apparatus that does not require a user to take a test consciously, but determines that the user undergoes stress based on text input to a computer usually used by the user.
On the other hand, apart from alleviation of stress or fatigue, for example, there are home appliances that communicate via voice. For example, the robot vacuum cleaner (RX-V200) sold by Sharp Corporation is equipped with a function of performing voice recognition and voice synthesis to have conversations with users (NPD 3).